the answer, my friend

...is blowin' in the wind, or at least a part of it is.

Last year world electricity production from wind power topped 158,000 megawatts, which is enough to meet the residential needs of 250 million people world wide. The problem is, that 250 million is only slightly more than one-third of one percent of the world's population of seven billion.

But it is progress.

China led the way, installing 13,000 megawatts of new capacity and bringing its total production to 25,000 megawatts, putting it in third place behind the U.S. and Germany. However, with its command economy and a dictatorial government which dominates the country's economic system rather than being dominated by it, China is poised to eat our lunch when it comes to making the transition to the energy economy of the new century.

According to Lester Brown, head of the Earth Policy institute, The United States passed longtime leader Germany in installed capacity in 2008 and then widened its lead in 2009, expanding its wind fleet by nearly 10,000 megawatts to reach a cumulative 35,000 megawatts. Texas remained the leading state in both annual and total wind installations, reaching 9,400 megawatts overall. And while Iowa is a distant second, with 3,700 megawatts of total wind capacity, at least 17 percent of its electricity generation comes from wind.

Other states which have not come anywhere close to realizing their potential as wind-generated power producers include Kansas, Nebraska, and California, although the latter has a couple impressive wind farms, at Tehachapi Pass near Bakersfield, and in the gap between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges, in the desert just north of Palm Springs.

The wind and the sun are going to replace coal in electrical generation and make petroleum less important. Because it's so obvious that this is what's happening, I'm surprised more big American investors aren't getting in on the ground floor of these new developments. Maybe next year...